News Odisha

Groping in wilderness

Bhubaneswar: For long, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's premier investigating agency, enjoys high credibility for its outstanding achievements in solving complex cases and bringing culprits, howsoever powerful them may be, - into the book. Now, in Odisha, its credibility has come a cropper in the eyes of the public as it has allegedly “failed and fumbled” to crack almost all the major cases it handled since 2000.

Since 2000, the CBI – among others - has taken over four key cases – Steel Bond scam, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scam, chit fund scam and woman teacher Itishree murder case. Surprisingly, in all these cases, the agency has not only “failed” to nail the culprits, but also allowed the “perpetrators” to enjoy their freedom despite the serious nature of their offences.

In June 2002, the Odisha High Court, expressing displeasure over inaction in probing of the alleged Rs 40-crore Steel Bond scam, had directed the state government to immediately issue a notification that will enable the CBI to probe the fraud. However, no breakthrough was achieved in the case and the fate of the case still hangs in balance. Most of the bureaucrats who as a part of an empowered committee had facilitated release of Rs 17 crore loan to a Mumbai based private to steel producer without following due procedures,-enjoyed their freedom without being taken into task.

Steel Bond was corpus fund raised by the former Biju Patnaik government (1995-1999) to provide support to the prospective steel producers to invest in Odisha so as to create employment opportunities for the local youths. As the steel producer defaulted to repay the loan, along with interest it accumulated to Rs 40 crore by 2002 when the state government handed the case to the CBI.

Steel Bond scam was one of the first few cases that the Naveen Patnaik government – which then claimed the “most transparent” administration - had handed over to the CBI after it assumed power in the state in 2000.

On May 12, 2011, - while hearing a petition filed by non-profit entity Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS), the Supreme Court had directed the CBI to probe into the large-scale corruption in the implementation of the MGNREGA. The petitioner – CEFS - had pointed out that while some north-eastern states and Andhra Pradesh did a good job in implementing the rural employment scheme, the others were far behind.

"We are constrained to observe that the Union of India as well as the state of Odisha, prima facie, have failed to effectively and purposefully implement the provisions of the Act. This has resulted in the deprivation of the entitled class from getting employment and receiving the allowances due to them in terms of the statutory guarantees available to them under the Act," a division of the bench had then observed and handed over the case to CBI for investigation.

In February, 2012, the CBI placed before the Supreme Court its report on the investigation into alleged corruption in utilisation of Central funds by six districts of Odisha for the rural job guarantee scheme under MNREGA. The case is still pending in SC for disposal.

“In our petition we had contended that MGNREGA money was looted by officials under patronisation of top officers by maintaining false muster rolls. The CBI, during its investigation, could not trace out such fake persons as because the persons were bribed by officials to hide the truth. It was the responsibility of the CBI to expose those fake beneficiaries and the officers who siphoned off the MGNREGA funds by maintaining false muster-rolls,” said Parsuram Ray, director of CEFS.

In 2007, CEFS had conducted a survey in 100 villages of Odisha’s backward districts and uncovered that out of Rs 733 crore spent under MGNREGA during 2006-7, over Rs 500 crore was siphoned off and misappropriated by the government officials of executing agencies.

In the multi-crore chit-fund scam, - although CBI arrested a BJD Lok Sabha member Ramchandra Hansda and two of its sitting MLAs – Pravat Triapthy and Pravat Biswal and a few other leaders, - some influential people – including a few former ministers allegedly involved in the irregularities, are yet to be brought into the ambit of investigation.

On November 24, the CBI filed a closure notice in the Supreme Court in the woman teacher Itishree Pradhan murder case citing it could not trace out the key accused. Leaders cutting across party lines had demanded strong action against the accused in the case.

Itishree – who had informed her top bosses and chief minister Naveen Patnaik through letters about the threat to her life from influential officers and politicians - was set on fire on night of Oct 27, 2013 allegedly some unidentified persons against whom she had brought sexual harassment charges.

The lady teacher even had mentioned names of some persons in dying her declaration recorded by police at a hospital in Visakhapatnam.

Leaders of the BJP and Congress have urged for reopening of the case.

The CBI – which on January 20, 2015 took over the case – had examined several witnesses in the Itishree murder case.

Senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra said it was unfortunate that the CBI submitted a closure notice in the Supreme Court before reaching a conclusion.

“In the history of CBI, definitely the closure of Tikiri lady teacher murder case would be a blot. This is very unfortunate,” said Mr Mohapatra.

The Congress leader Niranjan Patnaiik said, “Who killed Itishree has become a mystery after CBI’s closure report. We demand reopening of the case.”

By A K SAHOO

04/12/2017

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